MULTIPLE MEANINGS - SHOPPING AND THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF IDENTITY

Many studies of contemporary consumption have tended to reduce a compl ex and contested process to a momentary and isolated act of purchase. A similar kind of reduction is common in many semiotic analyses of sho pping malls and in studies of advertising which assume an audience's r eadings rather than investigating them empirically. Drawing on field r esearch in north London, we provide evidence from focus group discussi ons of the social use of shopping centres and of the multiple meanings of such apparently mundane activities for the consumers themselves. F ive themes are highlighted concerning skill, style, and shopping; shop ping as a source of pleasure and anxiety; shopping as a socially situa ted activity; consumers as knowing, active subjects; and shopping as a highly and complexly gendered activity. These themes illustrate that the consumption process condenses many aspects of our contemporary ide ntities including the dynamics of class and ethnicity, gender and gene ration, and the cultural politics of space and place.